Draw-bar attachment.



No. 644,028. Patented Feb. 20,1900.

w. E. COFFIN.

DRAW BAR ATTACHMENT.

(Application filed Nov. 23, 1899.)

(No Model) 2 Sheets-Sheet l. v

INVENTOR $7,; mow

cu Puumu'mu. WASHINGTON. n. c.

I otherwise it may be in good condition.

UNITED STATES PAT NT OFFICE.

WALTER E. COFFIN, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE NATIONAL MALLEABLE CASTINGS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

DRAW-BAR ATTACHM ENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 644,028, dated February 20, 1900.

Application filed November 23,1899. Serial No. 737,986. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WALTER E. COFFIN, of Cleveland, in the countyof Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, (whose post-office address is 10 Kenwood street, in said city,) have invented a new and useful Improvement in Draw-Bar Attachments, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan View of'a continuous drawbar having my attachment secured thereto. Fig. 2 is a'perspective view of the end of a draw-bar. Figs. 3 and 4 show my preferred form of block in side view and cross section. Figs. 5 and 6 show side and end views of a slightly-modified construction of block. Figs. 7, 8, 9, and 10 show other modifications, Fig. 8 being a cross-section. of Fig. 7, and Fig. 10 a cross-section of Fig. 9.

It has been common practice on the cars of some railway companies to connect the drawbars at the opposite ends of the cars by what is known as a continuous draw-bar connection. For this purpose keys are passed transversely through slots in the shanks of the draw bars and are connected by rods extending lengthwise under the car-bod y in order to transmit the draft directly from each drawbar to the other. This device, however, has been the source of a serious difficulty. WVhen the cars are in use, the lateral back-and-forth motion of the shank of the draw bar causes a rubbing friction between the key and the metal at the rear end of the slot which rapidly wears away the metal of the draw-bar. This Wear elongates the slot and may progress so rapidly that after a comparatively-short time the slot will become so long as to allow the coupler to project forwardly to an undue extent and to strain and break the usual locklifting chain or to cause the chain by becoming taut to prevent operation of the look. In such event it has been common to discard the draw-bar as worn out and useless, although The wearing of this slot is therefore a serious matter and the occasion of very considerable loss, all of which is prevented by my invention.

In the drawings, 2 represents the hollow draw-bar of a coupler. 3 represents the key above referred to, which extends transversely through a slot 4, formed in the walls of the coupler-shank, and is connected at the ends by rods 5 with the key, which passes in like manner through the shank of the coupler at the other end of the car. When the slot 4 becomes unduly elongated by wear or even before it has been worn, I place in it a block 6, which fits against the end of the slot and is held from endwise displacement by shoulders 7, which are preferably formed so as to fit against the inner walls of the hollow shank of the draw-bar. The block is therefore held by the sides of the slot from being displaced laterally and is held by the shoulders from being displaced endwise, while the key when placed in the slot holds the block firmly in position. The block then serves to take up the wear of the key, and when the block itself becomes worn out it can be replaced with a new unworn block.

Instead of arranging the shoulders 7 so that they shall bear against the inner walls of the draw-bar I may form them on the ends ofthe block, as shown in Fig. 7, so that they shall bear against the outer sides of the draw-bar, or I may employ two blocks 6'6, such as are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, each of which has two lugs or shoulders, and I may fit one of these blocks at the end of the slot in each wall of the draw-bar shank. The front and rear sides of the block 6 may be fiat, as in Figs. 3 and 4, or curved, as in Figs. 5 and 6, or one side may be curved and the other fiat, as in Figs. 7 and 8, accordingly as the ends of the slots or the edges of the key against which they respectively fit are curved or plain.

The blocks 6 may be made of various thicknesses, so as to provide for taking up the wear on the rear wall of the slot as soon as it has progressed to any appreciable extent, or they may be of such thickness as to restore the slot to its original length even when the reinforcement around the slot has been cut through.

While I have described my device as particularly adapted to the reclaiming of drawbars discarded owing to the wear of the slot because of long usage, it is obvious that my device adapts itself with equal facility to new draw-bars in which the key-slot is made somewhat longer than the width of the key, and a block 6 of suitable thickness is inserted, the block being renewed as soon as the wear on the block requires it to be replaced.

The advantages of my invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

My device is inexpensive in construction and can be readily applied to use, and when applied increases greatly the effective life of the couplers.

I claim-- 1. The combination with a draw-bar having in its shank a slot for the reception of a transverse key, of a block adapted to fit at the end of such slot and having lugs to pre- WALTER E. COFFIN.

Witnesses:

D. W. CALL, R. E. MILLER. 

